VOLUME 34 MAY/JUNE 2006 NUMBER 5 Exciting Plenaries and Sessions at the 101st ASA Annual Meeting by Cynthia Fuchs Epstein, can Civil Liberties Union. She will be and author of many books, will ad- who, with Thurgood Marshall, orchestrat- ASA President joined by Deborah Rhode of the Stanford dress another plenary whose subject is ed Brown vs. Board of Education will speak Law School, Director of the Keck Center “Transgressing Distinctions on Gender with Laura Gomez, a scholar of Mexican- Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader on Legal Ethics and the Legal Profes- and Race.” Also at the American issues, and Ginsburg and American feminist Gloria sion, and a specialist on women’s rights plenary, ASA’s own Rachel Moran, of Boalt Steinem—two leaders responsible for and ethics. Rhode was a counsel to the Lawrence Bobo, Martin Hall School of Law, challenging boundaries in American Judiciary Committee during President Luther King Jr. Cen- University of California- society—are the lead plenary speakers Bill Clinton’s administration. Also on the tennial Professor and Berkeley, who writes on at this year’s American Sociological As- plenary panel will be Judith Resnik, of Director of the Center for interracial intimacy. sociation Annual Meeting in Montréal. Yale Law School, founder and director of Comparative Studies in Following up on the At the Friday, August 11, plenary on the Arthur Limon Center on Public Inter- Race and Ethnicity and ASA’s objective to be “Transgressing Sex Segregation: The est Law. Resnik’s current work focuses Program in African and responsive to immedi- Law, Social Science and Social Policy,” on the United States’ “exceptionalism” African American Studies ate pressures emanat- Justice Ginsburg will speak on changes with regard to human rights. at Stanford University, ing from disasters, Kai in the legal profession over the past 40 Among other special sessions focus- will focus on race issues Erikson, Yale University, years. She was responsible for argu- ing on human rights, Jeremy Waldron, of and the political sphere. with Shirley Laska, Uni- ing many of the landmark cases that the Columbia University Law School and versity of New Orleans, changed employment practices and a world-renowned political philosopher, Ethnic Boundaries has organized and will other civil rights issues in her days as will speak at a special thematic session A number of very address “The Flooding a law professor and the head of the on torture. exciting thematic sessions States Court of the United of the Supreme Collection Petteway, Steve by of New Orleans: Views Women’s Rights Division of the Ameri- are also on the program. Ruth Bader Ginsburg from Up Close,” which Gender and Race Boundaries They are too numerous to will tackle the issues On Monday, August 14, Gloria note here but a few are unusual, includ- stemming from Hur- Annual Meeting Issue Steinem, the women’s rights activist, ing a session focusing on how the law is ricane Katrina and its aftermath. Also, in See insert on Montréal Annual founder of Ms. magazine, cofounder of instrumental in undercutting the bound- the session “Creating and Maintaining Meeting highlights! the National Women’s Political Caucus aries of color and race. At this thematic See ASA Meeting, page 4 with Betty Friedan and Shirley Chisolm, session, noted lawyer Jack Greenberg, Yu Xie Is Incoming Editor Members Propose Resolution of Sociological Methodology to Rename ASA Awards by Michael Hout, Others will import perspectives from Background other disciplines. But all articles will aim University of California-Berkeley In 2005 two members submitted a proposal suggesting that ASA rename to equip sociological researchers with two existing ASA Awards. Specifically, they proposed renaming the “ASA the tools they need for their substantive Yu Xie, the Otis Dudley Duncan Career of Distinguished Scholarship Award” the “W.E.B. DuBois Career of work. SM has, from its founding, fos- Professor of Sociology and Statistics at Distinguished Scholarship Award,” and since the DuBois name already ap- tered the development, the University of Michi- pears on an ASA award, they also proposed renaming the existing DuBois/ adaptation, and dis- gan-Ann Arbor, will suc- Frazier/Johnson Award to the Cox/Frazier/Johnson Award. ceed Ross Stolzenberg, semination of method- University of Chicago, as ological developments. Review by Committee on Awards editor of Sociological Meth- Important papers on Watch for the ASA odology (SM) beginning path analysis, latent That proposal was forwarded to the ASA Commit- with the 2007 issue of this variables, log-linear tee on Awards (COA) for review and recommendation. ballot in your mail. COA debated the proposal at length in light of existing annual journal. Members models, event-history Return ballot by 5pm of ASA, especially mem- analysis, multi-level Council policy (immediately below), ultimately voting ET June 8, 2006. bers of the methodology methods, and causal to reject the proposed name changes. section, thank Stolzenberg inference have given Existing Award Policy for his six years in service SM a strong impact to the journal. factor of 1.12 in 2004 For nearly three decades it has been ASA policy that awards should be for influence on the identified by the reason for the award, not the name of a person. This policy Methodology Is Integral field. (Impact factor is is based upon the principle that many individuals who have been pivotal to Substance of Research calculated by dividing to the discipline and the Association over the years are worthy of recogni- tion. For more than 25 years Council has consistently opposed using the Xie believes that the total number of Yu Xie ASA Awards program as the way to recognize and honor such figures. To sociological methodology citations of a journal’s some degree the more than 90 section awards have assumed that role; there should not be separated articles in a specified are now many section awards that honor contemporary as well as histori- from substantive concerns in sociological two-year range by the total number of cal figures important to sociology. Recent proposals for named ASA awards research and best sums up this perspec- articles published in that journal during have been rejected, and awards that were previously named have been given tive in his own words: “Sociology has that period.) descriptive titles, including the Pitirim A. Sorokin Award, now the ASA Dis- much to offer both scholarly and wider Xie hopes to continue SM’s tradition tinguished Scholarly Publication Award, and the Samuel A. Stouffer Award, audiences. We have not had the impact of high-impact articles during his stew- now the ASA Career of Distinguished Scholarship Award. we can and should have, however, in ardship of the journal. Of course, no edi- part because we have sometimes allowed tor can anticipate where his colleagues’ The Question Now Before the Voting Members methodological, theoretical, or ideologi- ingenuity will take them next. And so he cal differences to get in the way of doing encourages researchers with articles on Following rejection by the COA, the two members collected signatures what we do best: produce empirical the full array of methodological topics to from the required 3 percent of the voting membership supporting their pro- knowledge about human societies.” To submit their work to SM. posal and submitted it to ASA as a member initiated resolution. At the Febru- that end, Xie promises a journal that is, ary 2006 meeting, members of the ASA Council considered the resolution. About the Editor above all, practical. Council did not take a position on the proposed name change for these two Xie’s top priority is to publish articles Since 1999, Xie has directed Michi- awards, but referred the question to the membership along with an explana- that the entire sociological commu- gan’s world-famous Quantitative Meth- tion of existing association policy regarding awards. nity can use. Some articles will bring odology Program at the Institute for For more information on the issue of the proposed member resolution, researchers out to the cutting edge of see <www.asanet.org> and click on “Elections.” See page 8 for background. causal inference or statistical methods. See Xie, page 4 PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION MAY/JUNE 2006 FOOTNOTES The Executive Officer’s Column In This Issue . On the Importance of Being Engaged in ASA I am pleased to report that the state of the discipline of sociology is excellent and that the vitality of the Association as a membership organization and as the national voice of the Education Is Going discipline can be seen in all aspects of our activities. You, the members of ASA, are the vital force behind these achievements, Nowhere as made evident by your roles in departments and universities, Kenneth Land discussed the Child research and practice, the public sphere, and your engagement 3 Well-being Index’s latest results at in the Association. a Brookings briefing. Sally T. Hillsman The excellent state of the discipline and Association Bachelor’s degrees in sociology have steadily increased over the last 20 years and the awarding of doctoral degrees has recovered well from the declines of the 1980s and early 1990s. Grant awards to sociology for scientific research What Is the Seventieth have increased steadily and scholarly productivity is high. In the Association’s centen- nial year, the National Science Board recognized for the first time a sociologist, Dalton Anniversary Gift? Conley, as winner of the coveted Alan T. Waterman Award. ASA membership has con- Ethelyn Davis has been a member tinued to grow and will soon reach historically high levels. Section memberships have longer than any other member. mushroomed as members have increased their activity in the Association. Submissions 4 to ASA journals are up and their quality is high, and the website logged almost two mil- lion page hits in April alone.